6
THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA
of assessment and collection. This is precisely the ground-
work of the system which we find in operation in Moslem
[ndia from the thirteenth century onwards; but we find
also various developments of practice, which in fact furnish
the origin of nearly all the tenures existing in Northern
India at the present day. In the next section I attempt
to set out the logical relations of these developments to
tLe fundamental structure.
2. DEVELOPMENTS OF THE FUNDAMENTAL
RELATION
THE primitive method of realising the King’s share by
dividing the produce of each peasant persisted in Northern
[ndia into modern times, as between landholder and tenant,
on a scale which renders possible a precise appreciation of
its advantages and drawbacks. It works best when the
area. to be covered is so small that the claimant can transact
his business in person: its efficiency falls rapidly with the
increase in the area over which his claim extends. This
result follows from certain physical causes which have
operated more or less steadily throughout the historical
period, and owing to which crops ripen simultaneously
over large areas, while the produce may deteriorate very
rapidly between ripening and storing. It is quite safe
therefore to infer that a King with an extensive territory
had to face substantially the same difficulty as would
confront a large landholder at the present day, either to
employ expensive and wasteful staff for the few harvest-
weeks, or to lose a substantial portion of his claim owing
to deterioration of the produce while it is waiting to be
divided; and nearly all the variations in practice with
which we are concerned may be attributed to endeavours
to find a more satisfactory method.
For the purposes of study it is convenient to classify
the various developments into two groups. In the first,
the direct relation between the State and the individual
peasant is maintained, but the assessment of the State’s
share is separated from the collection: in the second, the
State ceases to deal directly with individual peasants, and
operates through Intermediaries of various kinds.
